New York Today: 40-Year Bike Trip

Bike New YorkThe first Five Boro Bike Tour, in 1977, was an informal affair.

Updated 8:56 a.m.

Good morning to you on this strangely rainless Friday.

This weekend, the Five Boro Bike Tour takes over the city.

Around 32,000 riders are expected to take the 40-mile ride on Sunday.

Quite a journey from the first ride in 1977.

“We had 200 or 250 people,” recalled Steve Bauman, a tour co-founder.

Wearing orange Nathan’s T-shirts, hiked-up shorts and sweatbands, cyclists from the American Youth Hostels Bicycle Committee and a handful of clubs met up at the Unisphere in Queens.

Their stated purpose: to train around high school students in bicycle safety.

There was hardly a helmet in sight.

The next year, the ride grew to 10 times its original size.

The entry fee was $1.

Back then, Mr. Bauman said in The Times: “People can bring along a kazoo or even a guitar.”

There were bumps over the years: torrential rains, a broken steam main that turned Avenue of the Americas into “a stream of molten asphalt,” and an oil tanker that burst and slicked a Brooklyn street.

These days, it’s the size of the thing that causes problems, Mr. Bauman said.

“When you have that mass of cyclists, it’s hard to contain them,” he said. “It’s like trying to contain water.”

When it’s over and cyclists return to Manhattan from Staten Island on the ferries, “we’re landing more people than they did on Omaha Beach,” Mr. Bauman said.

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

The good part of Thursday, continued: mostly sunny with a high of 70.

(Note, though, that flood warnings are still in effect for parts of New Jersey.)

Saturday, a grab-bag of sun, clouds and maybe a little thunderstorm; near 70 again.

Another chance of showers Sunday, with a high of 67.

COMMUTE

Subways: Delays on M and R and the southbound 1, 2 and 3. Check latest status.

Path: No problems.

Rails: N.J. Transit Montclair-Boonton Line still suspended between Denville and Montclair State. Scattered delays on L.I.R.R. and N.J. Transit. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Half-hour inbound delays at G.W.B. and Lincoln Tunnel. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect until Memorial Day.

Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.

How to avoid the Five Boro Bike Tour.

COMING UP TODAY

- Officials discuss plans for a monument to Sept. 11 survivors who became ill or were injured, outside Seven World Trade Center. 1 p.m.

- Mayor de Blasio is on the Brian Lehrer radio program at 10:30. Listen live.

- A rock concert with three bands at Tompkins Square Park. 5 to 9 p.m. [Free]

- An exhibit of 1960s photos of the Bronx opens at the Bronx Documentary Center. Reception 6 to 9 p.m. [Free]

- A closing reception for “The Soul of the World,” photographs by the Rev. Tom Martinez, at Union Theological Seminary uptown. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Exhibit ends Monday. [Free]

- A Dada poetry and performance salon at Cornelia Street Cafe in the Village. 6 p.m. [$8, includes a drink]

- A professor explains the mathematical implications of tick-tack-toe at the Museum of Mathematics. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

- Nets host Raptors in Game 6, Rangers open series in Pittsburgh, Yankees host Rays, Mets at Rockies.

IN THE NEWS

- Two teenagers were arrested on charges of trying to abduct 10- and 11-year-old girls off the streets of Queens. [CBS Local]

- Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence College and Princeton University are among 55 schools facing federal investigation for their handling of sexual abuse claims. [Associated Press]

- A woman was struck by an express bus uptown less than a block from where city officials had just announced new traffic safety measures. [DNAinfo]

- Easy come … The city mistakenly doled out $298 million in pension money to retired police officers and firefighters. It is taking it back. [New York Times]

- In Connecticut, medical marijuana patients can buy from street-corner dealers because towns won’t let dispensaries open. [New York Times]

- A postage stamp worth as much as $20 million is coming to the city to be auctioned. [New York Times]

- A walking tour of the Queensbridge public-housing project that includes sites of fatal shootings has some residents upset. [Daily News]

- A paean to New York’s vanishing hobby shops. [Lost City]

- Scoreboard: Mariners torpedo Yankees, 4-2. Mets crumble before Rockies, 7-4.

THE WEEKEND

Saturday

- It is Free Comic Book Day at stores all over the city (and country). Find a shop.

- The Great Saunter, a 32-mile stroll around the perimeter of Manhattan, steps off at 7:30 a.m. [Free, register]

- A cherry blossom festival on Randalls Island. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. [Free]

- Celebrate the color-splashed Indian festival Holi, with music and dancing, at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. [Free]

- MCA Day honors the Beastie Boys rapper Adam Yauch, at Littlefield in Brooklyn. Starts at 11 a.m. [Free]

- A Kentucky Derby party at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg includes a hat contest, Kentuckian cuisine and racing tips. 3 to 7 p.m. [Free]

Sunday

- A birding walk around Ridgewood Reservoir on the Queens-Brooklyn border. 8 a.m. [Free]

- Children make leis from paper roses at a “Moroccan Rose Festival” at Torly Kid, a store in TriBeCa. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. [Free]

- The Columbia Wind Ensemble plays at Riverside Park. 2 p.m. [Free]

- A two-act play written and performed by home-schoolers, “Expresso,” winds up its weekend-long Off Broadway run at the New 45th Street Theater. 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. [$15]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

- If you’re looking for fun outside New York City, The Times’s Metropolitan section has suggestions for Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.

AND FINALLY …

This week in New York music history: the seven-piece Brooklyn funkateer ensemble Mandrill had a No. 58 hit with “Fencewalk” in early May 1973.

It still makes for a nice way to step off into Friday morning.

Listen.

And here’s how it looked and sounded on ABC’s “In Concert.”

Sandra E. Garcia and Kenneth Rosen contributed reporting.

New York Today is a weekday roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning. You can receive it via email.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com, or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Follow the New York Today columnists, Annie Correal and Andy Newman, on Twitter.

You can always find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com.